The present invention relates to a diagnostic information generation apparatus and an ultrasonic diagnostic system, and particularly to a diagnostic information generation apparatus and ultrasonic diagnostic system which utilize an ultrasonic wave.
An ultrasonic diagnostic system operates to scan the inside of a subject of diagnosis with ultrasonic beams, receive a resulting echo, produce image data based on the strength of echo, and produce a so-called B-mode image. This scheme is also called B-mode imaging.
In addition, the apparatus evaluates the Doppler shift of the echo and produces a color image indicative of the flow velocity distribution of fluid such as blood, i.e., so-called color Doppler image, based on the Doppler shift of echo. The apparatus also produces a color image indicative of the power of Doppler signal, i.e., so-called power Doppler image. The apparatus implements the frequency analysis of the Doppler signal and displays resulting spectra or releases resulting Doppler sound signals. This scheme is also called Doppler diagnosis.
Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. S53-108690 discloses a technique of building an ultrasonic diagnostic system in two divided sections. One of the two section is a unit which scans the inside of a subject of diagnosis with ultrasonic beams, receives a resulting echo, and produces diagnostic information from the echo. The other section is a unit which produces display information from the diagnostic information. The diagnostic information is transferred from the one unit to the other unit by wireless communication.
The above-mentioned wireless communication is required to be as fast as around several megabytes/sec in order to keep the real-time performance of diagnosis. Such a high communication speed exceeds overwhelmingly the speed of communication means which are based on general-purpose wireless communication standards such as Bluetooth for example. On this account, general-purpose communication means cannot be used, and a special communication means must be designed.